I cannot but admire Robyn's pellucid post above, and this despite my own strong interest in astrology. Mostly from the point of view of the correlation between birth charts (the whole thing) and people's personalities. As the "real" Lord Greystoke said in his interview with Philip Jose Farmer, "I have read much about astrology, though I believe in it about as much as I do in the speeches of politicians."
Actually, I felt a lot more scornful of the novel THE EXORCIST and the later movie than I do of astrology. It always seemed a dumb premise to me that Regan MacNeil could become possessed by a demon merely because she'd played with a Ouija board. At that rate kids, and so-called adults, should be getting possessed by the thousands all across the world.
I suspect one reason it made such a shuddering hit was the year of its release - novel and movie both early 1970s. Parents were asking then, in the era of Vietnam, protest and drugs and free love, "What the hell is getting into our kids?" And fundamentalists at least were suspecting, "SATAN!"
They still are. And saying it. Loudly.
Back then I found the movie JOE, with Peter Boyle, a lot more frightening than THE EXORCIST. I couldn't for a second believe in the demon, even when Regan's head spun around and she snarled like a beast. I could all too readily believe in the beast that was Joe.
Another reason I did not, and do not, like THE EXORCIST, is that I suspect it's a ripe, rare and rank example of plagiarism. It was supposedly based on a real-life case of possession (of a young boy) that Blatty heard about and researched. I doubt this. I think it was lifted in all its chief particulars from the short novel THE CASE AGAINST SATAN, by Ray Russell, first published in 1962. I read it around 1967, in the army. A young girl is apparently possessed by a demon, curses, talks obscenely, tries to seduce and then physically attacks a priest, and is subjected to an exorcism ritual. It's performed by an old priest and his younger assistant, who is going through a crisis of faith at the time, and ... well, it's the same in all essentials. The difference is that Russell wrote it first and more originally, and that it packs more punch in its 50,000 or so words than THE EXORCIST in its much greater length. It's a lot better; simple as that.
Part of the punch lies in the reason, finally disclosed, for the girl's change in personality, whether it's natural or supernatural. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) It's a lot more powerful and dreadful than a Ouija board. Her father had apparently molested her. When compelled to answer why it has possessed her, the demon - or the disturbed girl - answers, "I have possessed her so that I may drive her to suicide ... so that she will be mine, forever, in the fire that gives no light ... mine and his."
When the priest asks who the demon means, it answers that it means the one who summoned it by his fearful curse, he who said to her, meaning every word, "Shut up, you little bitch, damn you, damn you to hell!" when she had seemed about to expose him as a molester.
Possession or trauma? The reader is left to decide.
I maintain that THE CASE AGAINST SATAN absolutely trounces THE EXORCIST, and that the latter was almost certainly plagiarised. But that both are fiction, and that demonic possession is a load of garbage. Although if anything could convince me otherwise, Kenneth Copeland's face, voice and antics during his sermons would be the things to achieve it.
"OK, but like … if God is in charge of everything, couldn’t he just make Ouija boards(TM) not work? Is he truly powerless against the forces of Hasbro?"
He could but how would He test if you're a good little soldier like that? "But why would an omnipotent being need to test you?" you might ask. Because His believers fail at realizing what omnipotent means.
My friends and I played with a ouija board some when we were, like, 12 or so. Like tween girls in the 80s did. We 'believed' in it, and TOTALLY had an *evil spirit messing with us! So much scary fun!
*not really an evil spirit, just kids being kids and believing their own bullshit in order to fully enjoy the absurdity
To evangelical and dominionist "Christians" the most trifling thing can invite demons to possess one. Admiring a shapely clavicle, or forearm on someone not picked out by your dad? POSSESSED!!!. Read the wrong book, go trick-or-treating? REPENT!!! I believe even Sesame Street watching will invite demons in.
Also "OK, but like … if God is in charge of everything, couldn’t he just make Ouija boards(TM) not work? Is he truly powerless against the forces of Hasbro" is 🤩🤩
EVEN watching Sesame Street, you say? EVEN? How you missed seeing at once that Oscar the Grouch is a demon, I'll never know, and Statler and Waldorf? As for the Count, he's not only a vampiric servant of Satan, he could get your kids involved in numerology!
It must be very confusing to attempt to cope with the 21st century when your mind is hopelessly stuck in the 2nd century BCE. According to a 2021 survey conducted by YouGov, 43% of Americans believe in demons, while belief in ordinary ghosts has fallen to 25%. All, or most of these credulous primitives have the right to vote, so the current mare's nest in Congress should be no surprise. Cell phones, high speed internet, vaccines that have almost driven diseases that used to be so common that most babies were not expected to live to reproduce. There is a vaccine for Malaria, even!! No wonder the woods are full of crackpots who are scared of vaccination, just short of half of our fellows are just shaved chimps, as far as their understanding of the world goes.
Of course you can use an Ouija board to summon a demon. That doesn't mean that one will arrive. It's a lot like writing to Santa Clause, only more childish.
Do you, by any chance, go so far back as to have heard that response played by a young Sean Connery? He was a virtually unknown actor when he played Hotspur for the BBC and by the time that video got to the US, he was James fucking Bond.
I was born on the very same day as Jon Bon Jovi. Yet while he has had incredible success as a pop star and restauranteur, I still occasionally play in bar bands to small crowds and much less money.
So much for sharing the same astrological sign. Or maybe the stars were just better aligned in NJ than PA that day.
My sister worked in an office where the guy who was the manager was born on the same actual day as her but 25 miles away. He drove her crazy with his stupid ideas and mistakes. The worst was at the end of every year he would discover anew, that they had been born on the same day.
Al Gore was born on the same day as me. I didn't lose a presidential election. I'm not mocked for claiming to have invented the Internet. My wife's name isn't Tipper. So much for the connection of Astrological signs. But Rhea Perlman was also born that day and I was in the cast of "Cheers". Aries are also notorious liars
I regret to report than nobody of any importance or fame (not necessarily the same thing) was born on my birth date in any year.
This is probably just as well.
I would hate to have spent my entire life consumed with a red hot jealousy of some mush head celebrity or, worse yet, an actual revered humanitarian. (They're the worst, those revered humanitarians.)
On the bright side, Shakespeare's very own Globe Theater burned to the ground on my birthday, albeit a few years earlier than my birth.
I'm not sure, however, that early firetrap English theaters have Astrological signs.
Perhaps this is a SIGN that I will make my eventual Exeunt pursued by a bear.
Well, I was born the same day as John Wayne Gacy, and while I have been known to don clownish makeup from time to time, I don't have any corpses under my floorboards. Nor, despite also sharing a bday with Stormy Daniels, have I ever spanked the worst President ever to exist with a rolled-up magazine. I do, however, have the dancing abilities of Rudolf Nureyev and the writing capabilities of William Gibson, so that's some comfort.
As an ex-pagan occultist Warlock of the Woods, I can safely say that once you release the demons from a Ouija ™ board, you gotta spend the rest of your life throwing salt over your shoulder and hanging iron spikes over your doors- just straight demon facts here.
Applause.
I cannot but admire Robyn's pellucid post above, and this despite my own strong interest in astrology. Mostly from the point of view of the correlation between birth charts (the whole thing) and people's personalities. As the "real" Lord Greystoke said in his interview with Philip Jose Farmer, "I have read much about astrology, though I believe in it about as much as I do in the speeches of politicians."
Actually, I felt a lot more scornful of the novel THE EXORCIST and the later movie than I do of astrology. It always seemed a dumb premise to me that Regan MacNeil could become possessed by a demon merely because she'd played with a Ouija board. At that rate kids, and so-called adults, should be getting possessed by the thousands all across the world.
I suspect one reason it made such a shuddering hit was the year of its release - novel and movie both early 1970s. Parents were asking then, in the era of Vietnam, protest and drugs and free love, "What the hell is getting into our kids?" And fundamentalists at least were suspecting, "SATAN!"
They still are. And saying it. Loudly.
Back then I found the movie JOE, with Peter Boyle, a lot more frightening than THE EXORCIST. I couldn't for a second believe in the demon, even when Regan's head spun around and she snarled like a beast. I could all too readily believe in the beast that was Joe.
Another reason I did not, and do not, like THE EXORCIST, is that I suspect it's a ripe, rare and rank example of plagiarism. It was supposedly based on a real-life case of possession (of a young boy) that Blatty heard about and researched. I doubt this. I think it was lifted in all its chief particulars from the short novel THE CASE AGAINST SATAN, by Ray Russell, first published in 1962. I read it around 1967, in the army. A young girl is apparently possessed by a demon, curses, talks obscenely, tries to seduce and then physically attacks a priest, and is subjected to an exorcism ritual. It's performed by an old priest and his younger assistant, who is going through a crisis of faith at the time, and ... well, it's the same in all essentials. The difference is that Russell wrote it first and more originally, and that it packs more punch in its 50,000 or so words than THE EXORCIST in its much greater length. It's a lot better; simple as that.
Part of the punch lies in the reason, finally disclosed, for the girl's change in personality, whether it's natural or supernatural. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) It's a lot more powerful and dreadful than a Ouija board. Her father had apparently molested her. When compelled to answer why it has possessed her, the demon - or the disturbed girl - answers, "I have possessed her so that I may drive her to suicide ... so that she will be mine, forever, in the fire that gives no light ... mine and his."
When the priest asks who the demon means, it answers that it means the one who summoned it by his fearful curse, he who said to her, meaning every word, "Shut up, you little bitch, damn you, damn you to hell!" when she had seemed about to expose him as a molester.
Possession or trauma? The reader is left to decide.
I maintain that THE CASE AGAINST SATAN absolutely trounces THE EXORCIST, and that the latter was almost certainly plagiarised. But that both are fiction, and that demonic possession is a load of garbage. Although if anything could convince me otherwise, Kenneth Copeland's face, voice and antics during his sermons would be the things to achieve it.
The power of Hasbro compels you!
"OK, but like … if God is in charge of everything, couldn’t he just make Ouija boards(TM) not work? Is he truly powerless against the forces of Hasbro?"
He could but how would He test if you're a good little soldier like that? "But why would an omnipotent being need to test you?" you might ask. Because His believers fail at realizing what omnipotent means.
My friends and I played with a ouija board some when we were, like, 12 or so. Like tween girls in the 80s did. We 'believed' in it, and TOTALLY had an *evil spirit messing with us! So much scary fun!
*not really an evil spirit, just kids being kids and believing their own bullshit in order to fully enjoy the absurdity
I never considered limbo to be a thing even as a kid.
Seemed like such a jerky thing for God to do.
My critical mind also never once thought that eating meat on Friday would have been a mortal sin. What the hell! In the same category as murder?
Most of the stuff in the bible is just jerky things for a god to do. "I want you to kill your son. Oh, just kidding!"
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of yewija boards should watch this documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFrnOKayxuY
To evangelical and dominionist "Christians" the most trifling thing can invite demons to possess one. Admiring a shapely clavicle, or forearm on someone not picked out by your dad? POSSESSED!!!. Read the wrong book, go trick-or-treating? REPENT!!! I believe even Sesame Street watching will invite demons in.
Also "OK, but like … if God is in charge of everything, couldn’t he just make Ouija boards(TM) not work? Is he truly powerless against the forces of Hasbro" is 🤩🤩
EVEN watching Sesame Street, you say? EVEN? How you missed seeing at once that Oscar the Grouch is a demon, I'll never know, and Statler and Waldorf? As for the Count, he's not only a vampiric servant of Satan, he could get your kids involved in numerology!
A shapely clavicle, you say?
I am getting all tingly.
I. Just. Can't. Even. Ta, Robyn.
It must be very confusing to attempt to cope with the 21st century when your mind is hopelessly stuck in the 2nd century BCE. According to a 2021 survey conducted by YouGov, 43% of Americans believe in demons, while belief in ordinary ghosts has fallen to 25%. All, or most of these credulous primitives have the right to vote, so the current mare's nest in Congress should be no surprise. Cell phones, high speed internet, vaccines that have almost driven diseases that used to be so common that most babies were not expected to live to reproduce. There is a vaccine for Malaria, even!! No wonder the woods are full of crackpots who are scared of vaccination, just short of half of our fellows are just shaved chimps, as far as their understanding of the world goes.
Poor ghosts! To have sunk so low and be called ordinary.
Chimpanzee libel.
Of course you can use an Ouija board to summon a demon. That doesn't mean that one will arrive. It's a lot like writing to Santa Clause, only more childish.
Shakespeare.
"I can call spirits from the vasty deep!"
"Why so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?"
More like cats then.
Beat me to it!
See below.
Do you, by any chance, go so far back as to have heard that response played by a young Sean Connery? He was a virtually unknown actor when he played Hotspur for the BBC and by the time that video got to the US, he was James fucking Bond.
Wait- so, no?
Godammit!
It’s like reading a Chick tract. Yeesh.
In fact, Chuck Chick might’ve been more chill about it than some of these folks.
Well, that little girl Regan McNeil summoned one back in the day. True Story!!
I was born on the very same day as Jon Bon Jovi. Yet while he has had incredible success as a pop star and restauranteur, I still occasionally play in bar bands to small crowds and much less money.
So much for sharing the same astrological sign. Or maybe the stars were just better aligned in NJ than PA that day.
My sister worked in an office where the guy who was the manager was born on the same actual day as her but 25 miles away. He drove her crazy with his stupid ideas and mistakes. The worst was at the end of every year he would discover anew, that they had been born on the same day.
Location, location, location.
Al Gore was born on the same day as me. I didn't lose a presidential election. I'm not mocked for claiming to have invented the Internet. My wife's name isn't Tipper. So much for the connection of Astrological signs. But Rhea Perlman was also born that day and I was in the cast of "Cheers". Aries are also notorious liars
I have the same birthday as John D.Rockefeller. Sure wish I had some of his wealth!!
I regret to report than nobody of any importance or fame (not necessarily the same thing) was born on my birth date in any year.
This is probably just as well.
I would hate to have spent my entire life consumed with a red hot jealousy of some mush head celebrity or, worse yet, an actual revered humanitarian. (They're the worst, those revered humanitarians.)
On the bright side, Shakespeare's very own Globe Theater burned to the ground on my birthday, albeit a few years earlier than my birth.
I'm not sure, however, that early firetrap English theaters have Astrological signs.
Perhaps this is a SIGN that I will make my eventual Exeunt pursued by a bear.
or done in behind the arras by Third Murderer
A favorite Shakes quote from Henry IV, Part 1:
"GLENDOWER
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?"
If Glendower called spirits from the vasty Ouija Board, his claim would be equally ridiculous.
Well, I was born the same day as John Wayne Gacy, and while I have been known to don clownish makeup from time to time, I don't have any corpses under my floorboards. Nor, despite also sharing a bday with Stormy Daniels, have I ever spanked the worst President ever to exist with a rolled-up magazine. I do, however, have the dancing abilities of Rudolf Nureyev and the writing capabilities of William Gibson, so that's some comfort.
Where do you hide your corpses? Asking for a friend. Or, possibly, an ex-friend.
Alas, I dance like Rudolf Hess and write like Debbie Gibson.
Too many people still buy into this nonsense.
Superstition and belief in literal magic (under cover of religion) need to be questioned at every turn.
As an ex-pagan occultist Warlock of the Woods, I can safely say that once you release the demons from a Ouija ™ board, you gotta spend the rest of your life throwing salt over your shoulder and hanging iron spikes over your doors- just straight demon facts here.
horseshoes, but yeah.
Nail the horseshoe up with an iron spike. Also bury a crowbar under the doormat just to be thorough.